As a general guideline most errors you'll encounter with your WordPress blog are the consequence of excessive or incompatible plugins. While many find the choice of essential plugins a conundrum I rely on testing each plugin one-by-one with the latest version of WordPress so I could isolate the situation to determine the explanation for the slow load times, call function errors or php memory limit warnings. The absolute most valuable tool I could inform you when it comes to plugins is that whenever possible search for existing code that may accomplish exactly the same result.
Needless to say you will find certain plugins that even I use within my WordPress Blogs. I've compiled a list below of the very best 10 plugins that I personally use on a regular basis that I believe may help any tech blog:
* AdSense Now - There are lots of ad insertion plugins for WordPress, if your tech blog is using AdSense - here is the plugin I will suggest https://onetech4.com/.It allows you to insert your ad blocks aligned left, center or middle in 3 parts of a post. Additionally, it offers you the choice to suppress ads on pages, category pages, tag pages, archives and more.
* Audio Player - To be able to insert mp3 clips or podcasts into your blog can be a problem. Audio Player is really a plugin that produces this technique simple - simply develop a music folder on your website via FTP and then upload mp3 tracks to the directory. You are able to insert the built-in audio player into many posts or pages with an easy type of code - painless, simple and easy.
* Facebook Sharecount - It's no secret that social networking sites like Facebook are effective ways to make a fanbase, but being able to harness that power utilizes an easy way to talk about your great content. Facebook Sharecount could make it possible for visitors share your posts and monitor your content.
* Foliopress Descriptions - Once your tech blog has hundreds or even thousands of posts you will require a way to mass edit your descriptions. While the significance of meta descriptions is debated https://linustechguru.com/, I still believe that the hand written summary must be written for each post. Foliopress Descriptions supports post excerpt, These and All In One Seo meta description fields.
* Google XML Sitemaps - If you've read my previous post on the best way to get indexed by Google and Yahoo you realize that having a sitemap is essential. This plugin auto generates your sitemap in a great and neat XML file and let's search engines understand the content in your tech blog. After installing and activating the plugin Google XML Sitemaps will take care of the rest.
* NextGEN Gallery - Managing your images and photo galleries can be a pain, but NextGen Gallery makes this simple. With features like auto resizing, watermarks, thumbnail creation as well as gallery effects - NextGEN Gallery is a must have plugin.
* Star Rating for Reviews - When you run a tech blog sooner or later you will start receiving products for review. Creating a solid review is just as much about content as it is about presentation http://housebeautifully.com/.Star Rating for Reviews allows you to create ratings for the merchandise you review or even rate different facets of the product and averages the ratings to determine a final score. The possibilities are limitless with the plugin - invaluable for anyone looking to review tech.
* TweetMeme Retween Button - If you consider the posts on TechBlogStartup you'll notice an orange Retweet button aligned to the right. The energy of Twitter keeps growing each day so rendering it easy for the reader to ReTweet great content can prove very valuable. If you've installed Google Analytics like I explained in my own previous post here, then you will be able to monitor so just how many visitors enter your post through Twitter. If you're wondering why I haven't included ShareThis it's because I manually insert the code as opposed to employing a Wordpress Plugin.
* WP Super Cache - If you've heard about Digg then odds are you've heard about the Digg Effect where articles on a website becomes so popular so quickly that the flood of traffic to the website causes the server to crash. Since WordPress blogs are made on SQL Databases they're highly susceptible to this condition, but installing WP Super Cache can almost eliminate this threat. The plugin builds a cache of one's posts and creates a static html page so that the server load is reduced and your website are designed for more visitors http://allibmblog.com/.If your tech blog is brand spanking new I would install the plugin although not activate it until I began to see spikes in traffic or certainly one of my articles was acquired by a major tech blog like Engadget or Gizmodo.
* All in One SEO - Search Engine Optimization is really a key ingredient to driving organic traffic to your tech blog. Writting great content is key, but after you have created that content you will need to be sure that it targets keywords and includes some basic optimization to make certain it's se friendly. All in One SEO does this job very well. If you're utilizing the WordPress theme I personally use (Thesis) then you will not need this plugin, but for almost any other WordPressTheme I will suggest installing it right away to ensure that you can begin writing your custom meta descriptions
Every one of the plugins I've mentioned above can be downloaded manually and then uploaded via FTP to your blog or you could add them from within your WordPress Dashboard - personally I choose the latter. If you're wondering why certain plugins are not listed on my top 10 list - I recently don't see them necessary to a tech blog. You will notice that I actually do somethings with TechBlogStartup that many people use Plugins or Widgets to accomplish - eg. the very best 6 articles aligned horizontally at the top of the site or the Recent Posts section in the side bar. For tech blogs that receive a large level of traffic, limiting the plugins helps reduce the SQL memory load and if you've ever endured a website crash you realize so just how important this is.
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